Speaker
Description
The emergence of the 15-minute city (Moreno, 2024) concept is closely linked to the climate crisis, particularly after the United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21, held in Paris in December 2015. In that year, a consensus and adopted the Paris Agreement, a major international agreement aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change. This agreement recognized the need to take urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthen society’s resilience to the inevitable impact of climate change.
Scholarship on decision-making in the planning practice and automation shows that integration of cutting-edge technologies can guide decision-making, enhance resource allocation, predict trends, engage citizens, and more (Ghisleni, 2024). The consequences of rapid economic growth and urbanization have led many cities that suffer from numerous problems such as traffic congestion, noise, air and water pollution to rethink their decision process through various scenario simulation and spatiotemporal analysis that addresses socio-spatial inequalities and predict approaches for sustainable urban development (Wang et al., 2021). An AI-based urban planning system capable of outperforming human urban planners in creating projects. Researchers discusses the factors used to define the ideal urban plan under the "15-minute city" concept by training the system using previous human-designed projects and factors that are predictive of positive outcomes (Ghisleni, 2024).
Planning studio instructions have also seen a transformation to integrate technology at various levels and scopes with pedagogies that integrate structured methodology for attaining academic goals and accreditation with the intention to align with professional practice. In this paper, I review and argue the use of several AI and geospatial modeling tools in a sustainable planning foundation studio at the US Campus of the University of Colorado Boulder. The City of Denver, Colorado was an open urban lab for this studio. Students explored the existing development code, newly adopted ordinances, and in-progress resiliency and climate action initiatives. In this studio 19 undergraduate students were introduced to sustainability and resilience measures, and contemporary urban design to examine urban growth as well as the development regulations on four prototype neighborhoods. The neighborhood characteristics entail different building typologies and density in order to propose a retrofit plan for each within the framework of the 15-minute neighborhood concept. As an undergraduate studio, the pedagogy challenges them to think through a multi-faceted and complex lens that intertwines environmental and equity measures. The optimal goal was to equip students with technical skills included focusing on geospatial tools and mapping and using different Geographic Information Systems apps and online tools for 2D, 3D mapping and data visualization apps for interactive data visualization (Esri, 2024). In this paper, I discuss the pedagogical innovations that included collaboration with the Immersive Media Lab, where students utilized VR/AR Meta devices and the Sketchup Software (Trimble, 2024) to develop the revised models of the pre-post retrofit scenarios of Denver neighborhoods. I also analyze the results of quantifiable use of an AI tool to measure a week-long Role-Play workshop series, led by students to emulate the roles of stakeholders and their -often- conflicting interests. This Co-Design CoBI AI tool was a collaboration with the campus Institute of Cognitive Science, which has tested the tool in different secondary education classrooms.
Comparing the results of engagement effectiveness will inform future pedagogies and assignment structure for next years. The results of student assessment, integration of AI and geospatial tools, and other online environmental performance platforms, will serve as an opportunity to discuss and reimagine planning education and accreditation requirements as a crucial agent of change. Quantitative measures for curriculum enhancement and student evaluation and reporting measures will be shared.
References
Moreno, C., (2024), The 15-Minute City, A Solution to Saving our Time and our Planet, Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.
Skidmore Owen and Merrill (2024), The 20-minute suburb, a Planning Framework for Connected Communities, Report by SOM.
Ghisleni, C. (2024), Artificial Intelligence and Urban Planning: Technology as a Tool for City Design, Arcdaily. Retrieved 1/29/2025
https://www.archdaily.com/1012951/artificial-intelligence-and-urban-planning-technology-as-a-tool-for-city-design
Wang, R., Murayama, Y, Morimoto, T. (2021), Scenario simulation studies of urban development using remote sensing and GIS: review, Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, pp. 305-8572
| Keywords | Artificial Intelligence (AI), Geospatial Models, Tradeoffs, Sustainable Development, Studio Pedagogy |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
